Since public opinion matters more than ever to Google today, reputation management has become an important topic in SEO and online marketing over the past year or so. One important point that must be understood about this topic is that managing an online reputation must change in the same way that Google changes its search algorithms – it makes it necessary for optimization and marketing practices to change,. A few good ratings based on results garnered through the previous year’s optimization rules may not work today. It is time to re-examine how to maintain a good reputation in 2014!

The Key to Managing 2014 Online Reputation

Following are some of the key points in the reputation management of a business.

  • Staying Informed – This probably seems like a simple idea, but companies are continually left out of the Google loop by remaining informed. If safe assumption is that Google will continue to change its requirements. This alone should set the precedent that maintaining both SEO and reputation require continual research into what has changed and how it will affect a website. Methods that have helped a company gain an impressive reputation in the past may not help today if that technique has suddenly become one of Google’s “Most Wanted,” and has been blacklisted by web crawlers and indexers.

  • Learn What Has Changed – While companies spend a great deal of time making sure online content is good and that the other general rules of SEO and reputation management are being followed, it is important to look for hidden changes as well. What minute changes have been made in Google’s attempt to ban content farms that could also affect websites? How is the use of keywords being changed? What are current trends in social media and how does that affect SERPS? Before being able to create a current plan of attack for a stellar reputation, all of these questions must be answered.

Taking Advantage of Growth

Following are some of the things that have become important in the growth of SEO marketing.

  • Social Media and Mobile Viewing – Recently, two areas have seen the most growth online – social media and mobile viewing. More companies than ever have mobile websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. This is a drastic change over just two years ago. Using this type of marketing is essential for the most growth, although many organizations are still lack such understanding.

  • Growth Challenges – Businesses need to take into account responsive website design for better device accessibility as well as Google’s changing policies on how it values social media feedback. It is also vital to realize there are increasing challenges within the most important social networking sites. Facebook’s continued time line changes have made it more difficult for businesses to be seen, even by its own followers, making social feedback even more valuable for both optimization and reputation.

  • Maintaining Good SEO – The best way to maintain good SEO and a positive reputation before audiences that are becoming more challenging to reach is to stay well informed about Google’s many changes. Research must be done regarding algorithm changes and the problems that may cause in order to plan tactical changes.

As always, companies must put forth some extra effort in order to be the leader of the pack in SEO. None of this is easy, but it is an absolute necessity in order to maintain proper reputation management and simply stay in business. Although the only way to be competitive today is by creating a presence online, companies must realize the commitment required to do this – at least if they want to walk the updated pathway to business success!

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